Musical instrument



B. A. MORRIS.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION man DEC. 8. 1917.

Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

A TTORNE Y8 B. A. MORRIS.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 8, 1911.

1,335,01 O. Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

2 $HEETS-SHEET 2.

//V l/EN TOR fioaz A. Jlforrds WITNESSES ATTORNEYS IBOAZ ALBERT MORRIS, or MOBEHEAD CITY, NORTH Geno-UNA.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

Application filed December 8, 1917. Serial No. 206,238.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BOAZ A. MORRIS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Morehead City, in the county of Carteret and State of Xorth Carolina, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Musical Instruments, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in musical instruments, and it consists in the constructions combinations, and arrangements herein described and claimed.

An object of my invention is to provide a musical instrument as described, having a continually rotatable shaft with a plurality of toothed disks, against which gongs are adapted to be pulled upon operationof press buttons on the finger-board of the instrument, to produce tones varying in pitch.

Another object of my invention is to provide a musical instrument having a plurality of gongs mounted upon resilient arms in the body of the instrument, with strings connecting said arms with press buttons on the finger-board of the instrument, said gongs being adapted to be pulled against rotating disks having teeth on the periphery and thereby produce musical sounds.

Another object of the invention is to provide a musical instrument including the novel arrangement of the body whereby the rotating mechanism for the shaft is inclosed in said body, and is provided with a door through which access to the rotating mechanism is had.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing how the instrument is used.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the instrument, portions being broken away to reveal only a part of the operating mechanism on the inside, one of the guides or'tubcs also being shown in section.

Fig. 3 is a detail plan View of one of the rotating toothed disks and a pair of the gongs.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the parts shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a detail sectional perspective of a portion of the neck and finger-board of the instrument.

Fig. 6 is a detail perspective View showing the connections between one of the press buttons and gongs.

Fig. 7 is a cross section showing the arrangement of one of the gongs.

'4: is mounted upon the neck 2 and is secured in place by. screws 5 or some other suitable means. The finger-board 4: closes the open side of the; hollow neck 2 and provides the mounting or support for the shanks 6 of a plurality of press buttons 7.

' The press buttons 7 are held in the normally extended position above the fingerboard 4, by springs 8. One end of each of the springs 8 is secured to the shank 6 of the press button, while the other end is secured beneath the finger-board substantially as shown in Fig. 6. A string 9 is connected to the lower end of each of the shanks 6 at 10. Each string. 9 runs over a sheave 11 on an arbor 12 mounted in the neck 2 adj acent to each of the transverse rows of press buttons.

A plurality of gongs 13 are controlled in respect to their positions in relation to a plurality of toothed disks 14L, by the press buttons 7. There are as many gongs as buttons, but in Fig. 2 only as many gongs are shownas can be revealed by breaking away the lower part of the body 1. The gongs 13 are disposed in pairs transversely of the body 1 of the instrument. Each gong 13 is mounted on the end of a resilient arm 15 having an elbow 16 through which a screw or other fastening device is passed, to secure the resilient arm to the adjacent side of the body 1 of the instrument. The other ,end of the string 9 of each of the press buttons 7, is secured to the resilient arm 15 at 1-7.

Pressed outwardly from each of the disks 1 1, is an annular series of triangular-shaped teeth 18. The best number of these teeth will be determined by experiment. The disks 14 and the teeth 18, are so located with respect to the gongs 13, that when one or more of the gongs are pulled toward the disks 14L by pressing one or more of the press buttons 7, the teeth 18 will strike the gong or gongs thus pulled, in rapid succession and cause said gong or gongs to produce tones of the desired pitch.

A rotatable shaft 19 carries the plurality of disks 14. The major portion of the shaft 19 is square and fits into square holes 20 in the centers of the disks. The ends of the shaft are round and run in bearings 21 near the extremities of the body 1. The bearings 21 are held rigidly by braces 22 which extend to the sides of the body 1, where they are secured.

A spring motor 23 rotates the shaft 19 which is coupled with the spring motor at the lower end, in any suitable manner. The spring motor 23 is wound by a key 2a which is accessible through an opening 25 in the base of the body 1, normally closed by a door 26. It will be observed that the spring motor 23 is inclosed by the body 1, and by reason of the fact that in playing the instrument, the instrument is rested on the floor as illustrated in Fig. 1, the means which furnishes the power for operating the instrument cannot be seen by an observer.

The strings 9 leading to the various resilient arms 15 pass through tubular guides 27 that are carried by the upper braces 22. These guides may consist of some other means than the simple tubes illustrated. It has been stated that the finger-board 4t forms the cover for the open side of the hollow neck 2. The body 1 is, of course, also hollow, and is closed by a cover 28 which is held in place on flanges 29, by screws 30. The cover 28 has a sound hole 31. The area of the hole is controlled by a slide32 operated by a button 33. The slide 32 runs on cleats or guides 34- arranged substantially as shown in Fig. 9.

The gongs 13 are of a special construction. Instead of consisting of a single spiral Wire, each gong is constructed of two spirals 13 and 13 as indicated in Fig. 7. The two spirals are close together and the ends are fixedly held in a mounting 35 which includes the stem 36 by which the gong and its appended parts are secured to the resilient arm 15.

The disks 1 1 are preferably made of hard rubber. The disks are rather thin and when the triangular teeth 18 are pressed out, they form resilient picks and are suitable for striking the gongs and producing the tones when the gongs are pulled over into the path of the moving teeth. Obviously, the

disks 14 may also be made of tortoise shell or any other substance suitable for the pur- JOSE.

1 It is truethat the teeth or picks 18 can strike the outer, spiral only, but the principle of the double spiral construction is to increase the resonance of the gong by the sympathetic vibration of the inner spiral.

The manner of operating the instrument is as follows: The spring of the motor 23 is wound by the key 2% whereupon the shaft 19 together with the disks 1% carried thereby, rotates continuously until the spring runs down. The spring motor should be so designed that the shaft 19 will run a considerable length of time, thereby enabling the operator to play more than one piece. To this end, suitable means for stopping the spring motor at the end of the playing of each piece, can be provided. The gongs 13 normally stand away from the teeth 18 on the disks.

If it be now desired to sound one or a combination of notes, corresponding ones of the press buttons 7 are depressed, creating tension in the strings 9 and pulling the resilient arms 15 cont-rolled thereby, toward the rotating disks 1%. The gongs 13 carried on the ends of the arms are then moved into the path of the teeth 18, and a tone issues by reason of the rapid striking of the teeth against the gongs.

In practice the press buttons 7 are ar ranged in transverse rows somewhat as shown so as to be easily accessible by the operator. The number of the press buttons and consequently, of the disks and gongs, will be fixed according to the range of the instrument. The diameter of the gongs 13 may increase from the bottom to the top, as partly illustrated in Fig. 2. The heavy and deep sounding gongs will then be at the top and controlled by the press buttons located at the top of the linger-board while the light and high sounding gongs will be at the bottom and controlled by the press buttons near the bottom of the finger-board. This arrangement may, of course, be changed, if in actual practice it be found desirable to do so. In playing the instrument, it is either laid across the knees or stood upon the floor with the scroll 3 resting against the shoulder, as illustrated in Fig. 1.

While the construction and arrangement of the device is that of a generally preferred form, obviously modifications and changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the claims.

'I claim:

1. In a musical instrument, a rotatable disk having a plurality of picks, sounding means including a gong normally in spaced relationship to the disk and picks, a sole resilient support for said sounding member, a press button, and a connection between the press button and said resilient support, for flexing the support and the sounding member toward the picks.

2. In a musical instrument, a disk having a plurality of picks, means for continually rotating the disk, a gong spaced from the disk, a resilient arm providing a support for the gong, a press button, and a flexible connection between the press button and the resilient arm, for flexing the arm and moving the gong into the path of said picks.

3. A musical instrument having a neck and a finger-board; a-spring motor having a shaft, a disk on the shaft, having a plurality of picks near the periphery; a gong normally in spaced relationship to the picks, a resilient arm supporting the gong, a press button including a shank reciprocably mounted in the finger-board, means normally keeping the press button extended above the finger-board, a flexible connection between the resilient arm and said shank, and a sheave for supporting the flexible connection above the end of said shank.

4. The combination in a musical instrument, of a press button shank, a flexible gong support, a sheave disposed in a plane above the lower end of the shank, a tubular guide, and a flexible connection between the lower end of the shank and the resilient gong support, said connection passing over the sheave and through the tubular guide.

5. A musical instrument, comprising a hollow body with an opening at the base end, a neck including a finger-board at the other end, a spring motor located in the base end and accessible for winding through said opening, a shaft actuated by the spring motor and supported longitudinally of the body, a plurality of gongs arranged in pairs transversely of the shaft, said transverse pairs of gongs being largest in diameter at the neck end and diminishing to the smallest in diameter at the base end, resilient supports for the gongs, disks on the shaft, with picks normally out of engagement with the gongs, and means for drawing desired ones of said gongs toward said disks and picks, -said means including press buttons with shanks mounted in the finger-board, means including springs normally keeping the press buttons extended, and flexible connections between the press buttons and said resilient gong supports.

BOAZ ALBERT MORRIS. Witnesses J. F, GmnENs, J. WILL GLAzn. 

